Issue 94

May/June 2007

Contents

news

Unique decorated jet lozenge from Suffolk matches Stonehenge gold

Heritage white paper praised: but who will pay for it?

Classic jadeite axe may leave UK

What was Roman interest in Silbury Hill?

New dates

In Brief & Phase 2

features

Ringed with the wrecks of slave ships: The Atlantic slave trade
Buy, sell, trade, drown. Jane Webster asks what archaeology can bring to the story

Churches face East, don't they?
Church alignments. Do churches face sunrise on saints' days? Ian Hinton surveys

Excavating Dover's Medieval seasfarers
Keith Parfitt and Barry Corke discover a fishing community

on the web

Recommended websites
Online glossaries and the CBA's Community Archaeology Forum wiki (CAF)

letters

Views and responses

CBA correspondent

Campaigns, comment and communications from the CBA
Adapting archaeology: Gill Chitty looks at climate change and archaeology in the UK

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

on the web

From academic to preserved poop

Want to define an archaeological term? Caroline Wickham-Jones has looked it up.

Plenty of archaeological information exists on line: what does it mean? Time to trawl the glossaries and thesauri.

Glossarist links to various specialist fields and includes both artefact and period specific glossaries for archaeology (www.glossarist.com/glossaries/humanities-socialsciences/archaeology.asp). It was set up in 2003, so it is worth checking out the source and date of sites as some were compiled several years ago, but it is fascinating to see where you end up – from underwater archaeology in Sweden to assignments on the archaeology of La Isla Fortuna in the Caribbean.

In Britain the "official" view is hard to find. Accessing Scotland's Past is based at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland; it aims to describe sites and monuments in lay terms (www.rcahms.gov.uk/asp/index.html), but is still at a pilot stage. Historic Scotland and Cadw in Wales seem to assume that the terms within their pages need no explanation. English Heritage provides various thesauri (thesaurus.englishheritage.org.uk), but they are well hidden and use brief academic definitions that assume existing knowledge on the part of the user.

Help is at hand, however. Stone Pages provides a megalithic glossary, though some entries suggest limited specialist knowledge (stonepages.com/glossary.html). Kevin Greene's listing is more comprehensive and authoritative (see box). About Archaeology provides an extensive international glossary with expanded entries and links that act as mini essays (see box).

Although the Council for British Archaeology does not link to a glossary on their home page (www.britarch.ac.uk), a search reveals links to various specialist glossaries, both on-line and in press. The Archaeology Data Service has a very useful list of acronyms, to which archaeologists are sadly addicted (what is WOSAS? See ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/glossary.html).

Archaeological glossaries for kids are important, but few. The Archaeological Adventure has one (library.thinkquest.org/3011/indexge.htm), though not all entries are very helpful (Geology: Study of minerals and rocks, Pertology [sic]: The study of rocks). The archaeology magazine Dig has a better glossary for children and teachers (digonsite.com/glossary/index.html). This too is an American site (Coprolite: Preserved poop; Stonehenge: Near the town of Avebury).

Many glossaries exist on the websites of local and specialist archaeological organisations, where sometimes surprising nuggets are to be found. Tees Archaeology (see box) describes Boldon Book and Brigantes; North East Lincolnshire council will tell you what an archaeologist means by client or watching brief (www.nelincs.gov.uk/environment/conservationservices/archaeology/Archaeology_Glossary_of+_Terms.htm); the Irish M3 Motorway website offers route selection and rmp, as well as some good archaeological definitions (ww.m3motorway.ie/Archaeology/GlossaryofArchaeologicalTerms); and Michael Shanks's definitions of amateur, scavenger and the academic are useful pointers to understanding Michael Shanks (metamedia.stanford.edu/~mshanks/weblog/?p=43).

We have some way to go before all archaeological terms are clearly and authoritatively defined online. Surprisingly few websites are illustrated, and few provide links to articles or site information that might help to place a meaning in context. Definitions are often incomplete and not infrequently incorrect. The determined internet archaeologist will usually find an explanation for a particular stumbling block, but this is an area of opportunities for new sites.

Websites that list words

• Underwater Archaeology Glossary – www.abc.se/~pa/uwa/glossary.htm
  • Absolute dating to Zebra mussels, with useful illustrations and sidebars.
• About Archaeology – archaeology.about.com/od/glossary/Archaeology_Dictionary_Index.htm
  • Extensive entries that include biographies, sites and endless definitions.
• Kevin Greene's Keyword Index – www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/kevin.greene/wintro/keyword.htm
  • Not pretty, but much work has gone into reliable definitions and useful links.
• Tees Archaeology – www.teesarchaeology.com/glossary
  • Authoritative to the point definitions clearly linked from the home page.
• Archaeology Info – www.archaeologyinfo.com/index.html
  • Detailed illustrated guide to our early ancestors, listed by hominin species.

Taking community archaeology to the world

Dan Hull describes an exciting new web project launched by the Council for British Archaeology.

Last December the Council for British Archaeology launched the Community Archaeology Forum, for the first time drawing together resources specific to community projects (www.britarch.ac.uk/communityarchaeology). The site is intended for anyone in that rapidly growing area: community groups, local government-based community archaeologists, or students, academics and funding bodies with a particular interest. There is advice on such subjects as where to get funding, how to create a project design, who to contact and where to deposit archives.There are also useful web links to other archaeological resources.

But the really interesting thing about this site is that it is community-led. CAF is constructed as a wiki, using technology similar to that employed by Wikipedia: it allows anybody to help build the resource. Once a user has registered and signed in, they can create new pages about what they are doing, comment on other pages or add to the guidance section. Webpages, reports, pictures or anything else can be inserted for others to see and judge.

Many groups and individuals have created a CAF page for themselves, even though they have their own website elsewhere: these can be linked to so that those who need to can head off and get more in-depth information. There is also a linked email discussion list so that people can share advice and ideas, discuss pages created on CAF and broadcast forthcoming events and publications, like the recent Heritage Link North East Interactive Forum Event at Hartlepool Museum.

Offering this level of user interaction took some thought. As many pointed out to us, there is always a risk that a minority might abuse the freedom, or that "quality control" might be lost. However, having managed open resources in recent years – the Britarch discussion list, for example with over 1,500 unmoderated users (www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/britarch.html) – we have found that the benefits far outweigh any risks.

It is telling that many have struggled and failed to come up with a definitive definition of "community archaeology". The cba has always been involved with local research, but we deliberately did not try to second guess what a community archaeology web resource should look like. Instead, we left the resource to the community. This fits well with the very ethic of community projects – they operate from the ground up, deciding what it is about their area that deserves special attention. As conferences at UCL and Manchester last year showed, this often means that there is huge variation in the way community groups work. So CAF too is built by many hands: pages and discussions change daily and are never predictable.

We are surprised by the ingenuity of projects. Since 2004, each summer the Kingswood High School in London has investigated the archaeology of their grounds: year 12 pupils made a radio programme about the project, available as a podcast from their CAF page. The Cawood Castle Garth group in North Yorkshire surveyed mole-hills behind Cardinal Wolsey's former residence, displaying photos and a list of the pottery they found on their project page. The Manshead Archaeological Society has created a webpage about their proposed study of Victorian housing in Dunstable, ready for more details once results come in.

It is early days still for CAF, and we really look forward to seeing how it will develop. Come and take a look. There is a step-by-step guide explaining how to create your own pages, and details of how to contact us in case you get stuck or would like to make suggestions. You could create blogs to tell the world about discoveries as they are made, and link to publications and digital archives. As Jeremy Cooper of the clasp project in Northamptonshire told us, it "presents a great opportunity for projects to share and publicise their activities and findings. It's still a new resource and projects using it will be helping to shape its future".

Dan Hull is head of information & communications at the Council for British Archaeology.

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